Enjoying some winter wonders in Brussels… COMPLETED - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
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Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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Your hotel looks absolutely stunning! Glad you were able to find some of your boys in the hotel! Love your room as well! The Grand Place looks like a great square and love the gold appointments on many of the buildings there!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Saturday 6 December – part six: he’s only like this one day of the year!
Finally, everyone was gathered together for the parade, and off they went…
I thought the character was modelled on the guy walking next to him…
You may have noticed some of the people were carrying sweets. As the parade passed by, one woman gave me sweets and said to me in French that it was from St. Nicholas. Of course! It was 6 December, otherwise known as St. Nicholas Day, often celebrated just as much as Christmas Day in many European countries. I remembered everything we’d learnt on the Yuletide Fantasy tour at this point. Suddenly it all made sense!
After the parade passed by, we figured that was it. I saw a sign for a 12th century tower, and we made our way along there, finding some of the medieval city walls, which I never even knew Brussels had. Cool!
What wasn’t so cool was that, as we arrived, there was a guy peeing up against the old city walls. Tempted as I was to take a photo of him and disgrace him internationally online, there were three other blokes he was with, who were talking nearby, so I thought better of it. Lo and behold, when he was done, one of the other guys went to do exactly the same thing. rolleyes2:
We headed back to the main road, and discovered that the parade really hadn’t moved that much further forward, so we ended up catching it back up again.
Dancing together!
These huge characters were just amazing, although those walking alongside them (and sometimes front row spectators) had to watch out when they twirled around, as their arms went everywhere, and we saw one woman get smacked in the face with it! We also saw people regularly swapping in and out of them, as I guess it must be exhausting to have those on. You get in and out through the back – it was all very cleverly done.
Now it was at this point of the parade that St. Nicholas himself joined the parade.
We realised we were right by the Mannekin Pis statue, so of course we had to get some photos of him. He looked amazing:
Later on, I discovered that he is literally only just dressed like St. Nicholas for this one day of the year from 9:00am – 6:00pm, so this was a real treat.
This statue has been here since 1619, but it’s thought there’s been a statue on this site since the 12th century. One legend is that the son of a duke was caught urinating against a tree in the middle of a battle and he was commemorated in battle. Unfortunately, this guy has been vandalised a number of times, and the most recent occasion in 1965 was a classic. He was broken in two, and only his ankles and feet were left. Eventually, the rest of the statue was found in a canal a year later…
Next: macaroons, chocolate and some familiar faces…
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Oh yeah, that statue. What is it with peeing in Brussels??!!
Very cool that you stumbled upon these things on Dec. 6! Those tall parade people things are crazy. Very neat though!
I never grew up celebrating that day as it's also my brother's birthday. (my other brother is a Dec. 25 bday!) But we've now started this tradition for our kids with candy in their stockings.
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Oh yeah, that statue. What is it with peeing in Brussels??!!
Well I guess we know where they get the idea from... and we did think Brussels was starting to get that certain Parisian subway aroma, shall we say?
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Very cool that you stumbled upon these things on Dec. 6! Those tall parade people things are crazy. Very neat though!
Good way of putting it, as it was neat, but nuts at the same time!
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I never grew up celebrating that day as it's also my brother's birthday. (my other brother is a Dec. 25 bday!) But we've now started this tradition for our kids with candy in their stockings.
Ahhhh, now I get it! The parade still looks majorly weird to me but we do have St. Nick's parades overe here as well - and our St. Nick looks exactely like the Belgian one It's just that the only people in costume in our parades are St. Nick himself and Knecht Ruprecht (St. Nick's servant who gives a birch instead of sweets to children who behaved badly during the year).
Ahhhh, now I get it! The parade still looks majorly weird to me but we do have St. Nick's parades overe here as well - and our St. Nick looks exactely like the Belgian one It's just that the only people in costume in our parades are St. Nick himself and Knecht Ruprecht (St. Nick's servant who gives a birch instead of sweets to children who behaved badly during the year).
I figured when you knew what it was, you'd immediately see some likeness to your own parades. I literally only know about St. Nick from the WDW tours we've done where they tell you about it, so this is the first chance I've had to see any of the aspects of it.
Saturday 6 December – part seven: macaroons, chocolate and some familiar faces…
Now around here, there were lots of chocolate shops, so of course I just had to go and explore them. In one, I found much more reasonably priced macaroons, so I got some, and a few boxes of chocolates to enjoy.
Randy Santa?
We found this shop with lots of Disney stuff, although it was all in the windows, and nothing in the shop when we went in, meaning you didn’t know how much it cost – and what we did find in here was pricey, so we came out empty handed.
We came back into the Grand Place…
… and we headed back down the street we’d earlier entered the Grand Place on, but this time we were on the other side of the road, and we spotted this…
… so in we went. It turned out it was a café, as well as a shop, so we decided to have a rest and ordered some macaroons:
Mark had the pistachio and chocolate and banana, which he wasn’t impressed with, saying you couldn’t taste any banana. I had the hazelnut and the cuberdon, which I was told was a Belgian speciality and was like violet, and both of mine were superb.
We also got some homemade hot chocolate, and were amazed with what turned up:
We sat there for ages, watching the video they had about this place, and it turns out the guy who started this brought macaroons from France into Belgium!
Eventually, we made our way out, buying a few more chocolates on the way, as of course we’d have to sample those at some point. The macaroon displays they had were really something!
We wandered along the street, marvelling at the amazing window displays:
Then guess what we found?
Yep, our old friends from the parade from earlier! We followed them into the Grand Place, and it turns out that the highlight of this is when they dish out even more candy from the balcony of the Hotel de Ville. My goodness, you should’ve seen people scrambling for those!
As they were doing this, they also turned on the lights on the various buildings here, which was lovely to see.
Beautiful pictures! I have to say, those brightly colored macaroons look a bit artificial. I'm sure it doesn't say anything about their taste but still
Oh my, that Eeyore is adorable!! I've never seen one like that before. I wonder how much he cost?!
Lovely window displays, and I can't believe the parade and/or celebration is still going on!
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Beautiful pictures! I have to say, those brightly colored macaroons look a bit artificial. I'm sure it doesn't say anything about their taste but still
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Glad you were able to find some of your boys in the hotel! 
Love your room as well! The Grand Place looks like a great square and love the gold appointments on many of the buildings there! 
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Strange fellows at the parade! 
PassPorter Guide Author
Of course! It was 6 December, otherwise known as St. Nicholas Day, often celebrated just as much as Christmas Day in many European countries. I remembered everything we’d learnt on the Yuletide Fantasy tour at this point. Suddenly it all made sense! 
We also saw people regularly swapping in and out of them, as I guess it must be exhausting to have those on. You get in and out through the back – it was all very cleverly done. 
The macaroon displays they had were really something! 
All the goodies look delish! 
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